How can we accurately evaluate spiritual teaching? Christ’s Apostle John gives us the answer which all of us need. He points out that the definitive reference point by which we can judge the truth of religious teaching is Christ himself. In 1 John 4:3 he wrote, “and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.” (ASV)
The words, “every spirit” focuses our attention, not on the ‘prophet’ who claims to declare God’s message, but on that energizing spirit which motivates him. While a teacher may present many admirable lessons, we must examine the validity of his teaching at its most central and critical level which is what he teaches about Christ. Many prophets verbally acknowledge that Christ came by being born of the virgin Mary. However, at the same time, they deny the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Some of those prophets who say Jesus never died, say instead that he ascended to God without experiencing death. Thus, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus which are utterly central and essential in Jesus’ own teaching are all denied.
Some prophetic teaching denies that the work of the Messiah was to become a substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of the world. According to them, Jesus is the Christ of God but not the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The great sacrifice which God gave to redeem Abraham’s son pointed to the greater sacrifice God gave through Jesus to redeem the whole world! That is why John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Thus, not only denying the incarnation of Jesus but denying who Jesus is or what he did while living among men which was related to his being the Christ, also is refusing to confess Jesus. Just this one test is enough for us to understand the deceitful nature of many prophets and to understand the energizing and motivating spirit which animates their whole system.
When John says, “this is the spirit of the anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard that it cometh;” (1 John 4:3 ASV) he again takes up a theme which he introduced in chapter 2:18-19. Here he gives us further essential information about this critical subject. The anti-Christ mentioned by John is synonymous with the “man of sin” and “the son of perdition” whom Christ’s Apostle Paul mentioned in (2 Thessalonians 2:3). It was undoubtedly from Paul’s letter to the followers of Christ in Thessalonica that these followers of Jesus to whom John is writing had heard that the anti-Christ was coming.
John told us in an earlier passage in his letter that “now have there arisen many anti-Christs” (1 John 2:18 ASV). These were the forerunners of the ultimate anti-Christ. Here, in chapter 4 verse 3, John further informs us that behind this huge movement against Christ is an animating spirit which he calls, “the spirit of the anti-Christ.” (1 John 4:3) That means there are satanic spiritual forces at work which raise up highly effective opposition to the Messiah!
When John says, “now it is in the world already.” (1 John 4:3) The pronoun ‘it’ refers to “the spirit of the anti-Christ.” This assertion that a satanic and demonic spirit “is in the world already” should be paralleled with the Apostle Paul’s statement that, “the mystery of lawlessness doth already work.” (1 Thessalonians 2:7 ASV) Thus, at the very dawn of the great world-wide movement started by Jesus Christ, Satan began sending false and deceiving messages. The false prophets, who were Satan’s messengers, misled people by wrong messages about Christ. Those false prophets were only the forerunners of the ultimate “anti-Christ.”
About the true followers of Christ, John said, “Ye are of God, my little children and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4 ASV) In the congregations of the followers of Christ to which John originally addressed this epistle there had been a cleansing and purging. The “many anti-Christs,” which are mentioned in 1 John 2:18; the “many false prophets,” mentioned in 1 John 4:1, had gone out of the assembly of those who truly followed Christ.
The apostle John tells the followers of Christ why the false prophets had left the assembly of the saints. He said, “Ye are of God, my little children and have overcome them:” (1 John 4:4 ASV) Those anti-Christs had been falsely associated with those who were true followers of Christ. Now they had “gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) That was the place where they really belonged. It was the place in which their views and their goals were truly compatible. Those who remained in the assembly of the followers of Christ were “of God.”
The followers of Christ had “overcome them.” No doubt, the pronoun ‘them’ refers to the “many false prophets.” (1 John 4:1) There had, apparently, been a struggle in which the false prophets had tried to take over the assemblies of the followers of Christ. Probably those anti-Christs had tried to establish their false teaching about Christ in the assemblies so that it would become the official program for the congregations of those who followed Christ. But, thank God, the people who were committed to that which had been proclaimed from the beginning (1 John 2:24, 3:11) had prevailed. Thus the assemblies of those who followed Christ were saved from becoming a centers of activity in opposition to Christ!
Those followers of Christ were told that they had been victorious “because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4 ASV) They had been victorious in a mortal struggle with the powers of darkness and their human representatives who were the many false prophets. The ultimate cause of their victory was not their personal tenacity, their personal honesty, or their personal humility (virtues which they undoubtedly possessed and brought to bear in the great struggle they had been through) but the cause of their victory was, “the Spirit of God” (1 John 4:2) working in them.
In stark contrast, it was the “spirit of the anti-Christ” (1 John 4:3), “the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6) who was at work in those false prophets who had gone out into the world. But it is “the Spirit of God” who is at work in “the children of God.” That is “the Spirit which he gave us.” (1 John 3:24) Obviously, since God is God, “the spirit of God” which works in the children of God is greater than “the spirit of the anti-Christ,” “the spirit of error” which is at work in the false prophets and in the world!